Gophers basketball: Malik Smith getting it together at Minnesota

Minnesota's Malik Smith tries to get control of the ball against the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks during a Dec. 20, 2013, game at Williams Arena. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Richard Pitino wasn't surprised by Malik Smith's fearlessness.

The first-year University of Minnesota basketball coach wasn't surprised his senior guard lit up Michigan State in the first half in front of 15,000 raving fans in East Lansing, Mich., on Jan. 15.

Pitino wasn't surprised Smith was ready to increase his leadership role in replacing injured leading scorer Andre Hollins, who will miss his second straight game with an ankle injury Saturday when the Gophers (15-6, 4-4) play Northwestern (11-11, 4-5) at Williams Arena.

Smith scored 29 points with a school-record tying eight three-pointers in his first start in Sunday's loss at Nebraska. It was the kind of performance Pitino saw from Smith last season when both were at Florida International.

"But there's a lot of people in Boston who would be shocked at where Malik is right now," Pitino said. "He's grown as a person a lot. He was difficult to deal with, they said, at a young age. But now he doesn't get into trouble. He's taking care of his academics. He's a great father."

Having 3-year-old Malik Jr., who lives in Boston, in his life has helped Smith mature, but he's also had several chances and a long road to reach this point.

Smith has played for five schools since he left Madison Park High School in Boston in 2007. At that time, he was featured in an award-winning documentary film called "Push: Madison vs. Madison," which chronicled his team's quest for a state title while players dealt with gang violence in rival housing projects.

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"Being from the inner city, seeing a lot growing up as a kid, probably a lot that we shouldn't have seen," Smith, 24, said this season, "makes me appreciate where I am right now a lot more."

Smith's mother, Gladys Pearson, talks to her son almost daily, and before and after games. She is grateful her son is playing college basketball and living out his dreams.

Pearson, who raised six children in the rough Bromley-Heath housing development in Boston, used to make it to every one of Smith's games when he was growing up.

One game in particular makes her recall how fearful she was for his life. It was before Smith's senior year during an AAU basketball tournament at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Some gang members from the Academy Homes housing development planned to shoot Smith and others from rival Bromley-Heath once they left the gym, Pearson said.

Luckily, Smith had friends waiting for him in a car to rush him away right after the game. Several police officers also tried to make sure there was no incident that day.

"I was there," Pearson said. "Police were there. (Gang members) were already in the gym, and they had seen Malik and his other friend and my other son. People were all over the place when they came out of the gym. He had a ride. When I came out the door, they left before me. Yeah, it was a scary moment."

Smith's mother said her son was never involved in the gang-related activity that swarmed the area.

"He wasn't into the stuff people do here," she said. "He was always into basketball and on the court. He and his younger brother and friends didn't hang out with that crowd."

Smith grew up without his father at home, so it wasn't always easy to find the right guidance away from home.

He admitted in the 2007 documentary he couldn't always avoid trouble.

"I seen people get shot, stabbed, killed," he said in the film, which will air again Feb. 9 on ESPN Classic. "You hear gunshots every night. I fight every day. It's just real wild out here. You never know what you're going to see."

But Smith said this season that basketball and family kept him from going down the wrong path.

"My mom always made sure I was out of the streets and at home doing homework or whatever I needed to do," he said. "If not, I was in the gym with my friends. I think hanging around the right crowd was a major thing."

Leo Papile, former director of player personnel with the Boston Celtics, coached Smith in the Boston Amateur Basketball Club starting in his freshman year.

Papile, who founded the organization in 1977, said Smith is probably the "all-time rags to riches story" in BABC history.

"That area he was in was pretty rough," Papile said. "It's notorious for gang warfare, high murder rate and things of that nature. Malik just by birthright kind of fell into that. He could have very easily been a statistic."

Smith led Massachusetts in scoring with 26 points a game his senior year, but his Madison Park team fell short of a state title at 19-2.

He spent a year of high school at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., but failed to qualify to play Division I basketball.

The next turn was playing for two Texas junior colleges in three years. After things didn't work out at South Plains, Smith finally excelled on and off the court at Jacksonville College in 2011-12.

Smith said he wasn't taking school seriously until then.

"That's really where I picked things up," Smith said. "I had my son. I figured I had to do something. Something has to give. I didn't want to be home doing what all those other people were doing. So I just straightened my head, got into the books and started working on my game."

NBA hall of famer Isiah Thomas had recruited Smith for FIU before he was fired as coach in 2012. Pitino, who replaced Thomas, landed the sharpshooter after talking with Papile about being desperate for players with only five on scholarship.

"Richard basically said, 'So where do I send the letter of intent?' " Papile said. "Last year, I saw Malik play and thought he was a pro prospect. He's getting better. He always could knock down shots, but he got stronger. He's making better decisions. He's become kind of a roughneck defender on the ball."

Hundreds of friends, family and community members drove to see Smith play his first FIU game last season at Boston College. He went on to average 14 points as a junior while setting a school record with 96 three-pointers.

Smith's college career would have ended there if Pitino hadn't taken the Gophers job last April. FIU was ineligible for the postseason in 2013-14 because of poor academics under Thomas. Because Smith was also graduating, he had an opportunity to get an NCAA waiver to transfer and play immediately somewhere else.

Texas, Alabama and Pittsburgh were among the schools hoping to land him. But Smith stayed loyal to Pitino for taking him out of junior college when others were skeptical.

Now, Smith is leading the team in three-pointers (47) and free-throw shooting (87 percent) and averaging 10 points a game.

The former Boston brat continues to make people back home amazed at how far he's come.

"He was like a little boy, but all of a sudden he grew up to be a better man," his mother said. "I'm proud of him. The whole family is proud of him."